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Casino: Split vote in Vaughan favours bidding for a gambling facility

In the end, the glittering promise of $32 million per year from Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. hosting fees, up to $3 million in property taxes, 8,000 to 10,000 permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs was too much for the majority of Vaughan city councillors to resist.

After a meeting that didn’t wrap up until 3 a.m. Wednesday and in a vote split along gender lines — five male councillors voted yes, and four female councillors voted no — the city passed a motion to tell OLG it wants to host a gaming complex that would be part of a bigger hotel and entertainment district.

Vaughan city staff have recommended two sites for the complex should the city be successful in its bid: at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, a commercial downtown development area near Highway 400 and Highway 7, or provincially owned land in the vicinity of the planned Jane St. and Highway 407 subway station, expected to open in the autumn of 2016 as part of the TTC University-Spadina line expansion.

The city’s staff report suggested “significant benefits’’ to the city that could come with building a complex through the “anticipated capital investment of more than $1.2 billion by a private sector gaming operator.’’

Gambling will be only part of the “entertainment district’’ Vaughan envisions.

“A stand-alone casino in the City of Vaughan would never be supported,’’ Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua told the Star.

The city wants an 800-room, five-star hotel, a 500,000-square-foot convention centre and an arts and entertainment centre that would include a casino, he said.

Centennial College told the council Tuesday night that it might be interested in opening a campus in Vaughan, he said. “These are the sort of dynamics that can bring about a change for that area.”

Following Toronto’s recent rejection of a casino, Vaughan is the only municipality in an OLG-identified zone that also includes Mississauga, Richmond Hill and Markham to indicate interest in hosting one.

The same night Vaughan councillors started their deliberations, Markham council said no to a casino, with one councillor referring to it as a “real blight on the city’’ because of adverse effects linked to gambling.

Some Vaughan councillors feel the same way.

Councillor Rosanna DeFrancesca, who voted against Vaughan becoming a host site, said about 75 per cent of her constituents are against it and that the staff report was too positively slanted. She said she’s very concerned about negative social ramifications.

Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco is also strongly against a Vaughan casino, citing the hundreds of residents who signed a petition against it and an online survey in which the majority of comments were negative.

Racco’s husband, Mario Racco, is co-founder of an anti-casino citizens’ group called No Casino Vaughan and says he hasn’t given up the fight, despite council’s vote this week.

“We do not want a casino in Vaughan under any circumstance,’’ he said, predicting that after a few years the value accruing to the city will drop but crime will rise.

Bevilacqua told the Star that the social issues surrounding gambling need to be discussed on an ongoing basis, whether or not there’s a casino involved.

“I think when you look at the social issues, these are issues that we, as governments and societies, need to address independently of an entertainment centre. These are issues that people are faced with all the time ... we all are, as a society, concerned about alcohol, but everyone wants an LCBO in their community. Does that mean we’re promoting alcoholism?’’

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Bevilacqua believes Vaughan residents are “evenly split’’ on the casino question. A city-hired consultant’s focus group findings indicated the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks. The consultant’s online survey of 500 Vaughan residents found that 77 per cent) agreed the city should assess the financial benefits of a casino/entertainment district. But an even higher percentage (85 per cent) felt the city should assess the social impact as well.

There has been speculation that a Vaughan casino would adversely affect the fortunes of nearby Woodbine racetrack, whose quest to expand its current gaming facilities was rejected by Toronto council along with the downtown casino proposal, and Casino Rama near Orillia.

Jenna Hunter, media relations manager for Casino Rama, told the Star that “at this point it’s hard to speculate about what the impact would be.’’

But she said that Casino Rama has had more than 16 years’ experience as a “great entertainment destination’’ for people from all over Ontario, and she has faith in its business and marketing expertise.

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